515 research outputs found
The State and Development Prospects of Goat Production in the World
Goats are the most popular animals in the world and goat meat and milk consumption are most widely distributed in the world. Goats are popular with small holders because of their efficient conversion of feed into edible and high-quality meat, milk and hide. Goats are also used as holistic tools for land vegetation management and fire fuel load control. With proper grazing management, goats can eliminate noxious weeds, restore native grasses and prevent fires through fuel load reduction. In the world the number of goats is increasing. However, when it comes to growing goats, the conditions prevailing today are fairly complex. Problems and prospects vary by region, which consequently have different cultural and economic implications. Both global and regional approaches to livestock farming are important from the economic aspect of developed and developing nations. Rapidly increasing goat populations in developing countries point to the goat assisting in solving some of the needs created by the rising human population. Goat farming in Europe also has a more positive outlook after nearly a century of a negative reputation. Dairy-goat farming is significant to the economies of the Mediterranean countries. Dairy goats produce about 15.2 million metric tons (MT) of milk, accounting for about 2% of the world total amount of milk produced by livestock species. The developing countries produce approximately 83% of the total amount. In Europe, goat breeding is strongly oriented towards milk production, with only 3% of the world goat population producing about 15% of the world’s goat milk, which is mostly used for cheese production. Goat meat is widely consumed in the developing countries. According to FAOSTAT (2008), total meat inventory is about 280 million MT. Goat meat represents only 2% of this total. The total amount of goat meat produced in 2008 was 4.9 million MT. The developing countries produced approximately 97% of this amount, reflecting the great importance of goat meat to feed millions of people in these countries. The top ten countries producing goat meat are all from Asia and Africa. China is a world leader in producing goat meat, accounting for 38% of the world total goat meat produced. Goat meat production has been increasing from 2.65 million MT in 1990 to 4.93 million MT in 2008
Structure and Thermodynamics of the Mixed Alkali Alanates
The thermodynamics and structural properties of the hexahydride alanates
(M2M'AlH6) with the elpasolite structure have been investigated. A series of
mixed alkali alanates (Na2LiAlH6, K2LiAlH6 and K2NaAlH6) were synthesized and
found to reversibly absorb and desorb hydrogen without the need for a catalyst.
Pressure-composition isotherms were measured to investigate the thermodynamics
of the absorption and desorption reactions with hydrogen. Isotherms for
catalyzed (4 mol% TiCl3) and uncatalyzed Na2LiAlH6 exhibited an increase in
kinetics, but no change in the bulk thermodynamics with the addition of a
dopant. A structural analysis using synchrotron x-ray diffraction showed that
these compounds favor the Fm-3m space group with the smaller ion (M') occupying
an octahedral site. These results demonstrate that appropriate cation
substitutions can be used to stabilize or destabilize the material and may
provide an avenue to improving the unfavorable thermodynamics of a number of
materials with promising gravimetric hydrogen densities.Comment: 6 pages, 7 figures,3 tables, submitted to PR
Electronic structure and optical properties of lightweight metal hydrides
We study the electronic structures and dielectric functions of the simple
hydrides LiH, NaH, MgH2 and AlH3, and the complex hydrides Li3AlH6, Na3AlH6,
LiAlH4, NaAlH4 and Mg(AlH4)2, using first principles density functional theory
and GW calculations. All these compounds are large gap insulators with GW
single particle band gaps varying from 3.5 eV in AlH3 to 6.5 eV in the MAlH4
compounds. The valence bands are dominated by the hydrogen atoms, whereas the
conduction bands have mixed contributions from the hydrogens and the metal
cations. The electronic structure of the aluminium compounds is determined
mainly by aluminium hydride complexes and their mutual interactions. Despite
considerable differences between the band structures and the band gaps of the
various compounds, their optical responses are qualitatively similar. In most
of the spectra the optical absorption rises sharply above 6 eV and has a strong
peak around 8 eV. The quantitative differences in the optical spectra are
interpreted in terms of the structure and the electronic structure of the
compounds.Comment: 13 pages, 10 figure
Mineral Characterization of Soil Type Ranker Formed on Serpentines Occurring in Southern Belgrade Environs Bubanj Potok
The paper addresses the issue of health risk associated with the presence of chrysotile in the soil type ranker formed on massive serpentines occurring in the area of Bubanj Potok, a settlement located in the southern Belgrade environs, Serbia. Characterization of the ranker soil was conducted by scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, micro-Raman spectroscopy and transmission Fe-57 Mossbauer spectroscopy. Scanning electron microscopy figures showed regular shaped smectite (montmorillonite) particles, aggregates of chlorite, and elongated sheets of serpentines minerals antigorite. X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed the presence of detrital mineral quartz polymorph as well as minor amounts of other mineral species. Micro-Raman spectroscopy identified the presence of dominant minerals, such as montmorillonite, kaolinite, muscovite, gypsum, calcite, albite, amphiboles (hornblende/kaersutite) and orthoclase. Important polymorph silica modifications of quartz, olivine (forsterite), pyroxene (enstatite/ferrosilite, diopside/hedenbergite), and serpentine (antigorite/lizardite/chrysotile) were identified
Discovery of the Onset of Rapid Accretion by a Dormant Massive Black Hole
Massive black holes are believed to reside at the centres of most galaxies.
They can be- come detectable by accretion of matter, either continuously from a
large gas reservoir or impulsively from the tidal disruption of a passing star,
and conversion of the gravitational energy of the infalling matter to light.
Continuous accretion drives Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN), which are known to be
variable but have never been observed to turn on or off. Tidal disruption of
stars by dormant massive black holes has been inferred indirectly but the on-
set of a tidal disruption event has never been observed. Here we report the
first discovery of the onset of a relativistic accretion-powered jet in the new
extragalactic transient, Swift J164449.3+573451. The behaviour of this new
source differs from both theoretical models of tidal disruption events and
observations of the jet-dominated AGN known as blazars. These differences may
stem from transient effects associated with the onset of a powerful jet. Such
an event in the massive black hole at the centre of our Milky Way galaxy could
strongly ionize the upper atmosphere of the Earth, if beamed towards us.Comment: Submitted to Nature. 4 pages, 3 figures (main paper). 26 pages, 13
figures (supplementary information
Massive Black Hole Binary Inspirals: Results from the LISA Parameter Estimation Taskforce
The LISA Parameter Estimation (LISAPE) Taskforce was formed in September 2007
to provide the LISA Project with vetted codes, source distribution models, and
results related to parameter estimation. The Taskforce's goal is to be able to
quickly calculate the impact of any mission design changes on LISA's science
capabilities, based on reasonable estimates of the distribution of
astrophysical sources in the universe. This paper describes our Taskforce's
work on massive black-hole binaries (MBHBs). Given present uncertainties in the
formation history of MBHBs, we adopt four different population models, based on
(i) whether the initial black-hole seeds are small or large, and (ii) whether
accretion is efficient or inefficient at spinning up the holes. We compare four
largely independent codes for calculating LISA's parameter-estimation
capabilities. All codes are based on the Fisher-matrix approximation, but in
the past they used somewhat different signal models, source parametrizations
and noise curves. We show that once these differences are removed, the four
codes give results in extremely close agreement with each other. Using a code
that includes both spin precession and higher harmonics in the
gravitational-wave signal, we carry out Monte Carlo simulations and determine
the number of events that can be detected and accurately localized in our four
population models.Comment: 14 pages, 2 figures, 5 tables, minor changes to match version to be
published in the proceedings of the 7th LISA Symposium. For more information
see the Taskforce's wiki at http://www.tapir.caltech.edu/dokuwiki/lisape:hom
Amyloid, tau, and astrocyte pathology in autosomal-dominant Alzheimer’s disease variants: AβPParc and PSEN1DE9
Autosomal-dominant Alzheimer’s disease (ADAD) may be associated with
atypical amyloid beta deposits in the brain. In vivo amyloid imaging
using 11C-Pittsburgh compound B (PiB) tracer has shown
differences in binding between brains from ADAD and sporadic Alzheimer’s
disease (sAD) patients. To gain further insight into the various
pathological characteristics of these genetic variants, we performed
large frozen hemisphere autoradiography and brain homogenate binding
assays with 3H-PiB, 3H-MK6240-3H-THK5117, and 3H-deprenyl for detection of amyloid fibrils, tau depositions, and activated astrocytes, respectively, in two AβPParc mutation carriers, one PSEN1ΔE9
mutation carrier, and three sAD cases. The results were compared with
Abeta 40, Abeta 42, AT8, and GFAP immunostaining, respectively, as well
as with Congo red and Bielschowsky. PiB showed a very low binding in AβPParc. A high binding was observed in PSEN1ΔE9 and in sAD tissues but with different binding patterns. Comparable 3H-THK5117 and 3H-deprenyl brain homogenate binding was observed for AβPParc, PSEN1ΔE9, and sAD, respectively. Some differences were observed between 3H-MK6240 and 3H-THK5117 in ADAD. A positive correlation between 3H-deprenyl and 3H-THK5117 binding was observed in AβPParc, while no such correlation was found in PSEN1ΔE9
and sAD. Our study demonstrates differences in the properties of the
amyloid plaques between two genetic variants of AD and sAD. Despite the
lack of measurable amyloid fibrils by PiB in the AβPParc cases, high regional tau and astrocyte binding was observed. The lack of correlation between 3H-deprenyl and 3H-THK5117 binding in PSEN1ΔE9 and sAD in contrast of the positive correlation observed in the AβPParc cases suggest differences in the pathological cascade between variants of AD that warrant further exploration in vivo
Constraining Dynamical Dark Energy Models through the Abundance of High-Redshift Supermassive Black Holes
We compute the number density of massive Black Holes (BHs) at the centre of
galaxies at z=6 in different Dynamical Dark Energy (DDE) cosmologies, and
compare it with existing observational lower limits, to derive constraints on
the evolution of the Dark Energy equation of state parameter w. Our approach
only assumes the canonical scenario for structure formation from the collapse
of overdense regions of the Dark Matter dominated primordial density field on
progressively larger scales; the Black Hole accretion and merging rate have
been maximized in the computation so as to obtain robust constraints on w and
on its look-back time derivative w_a. Our results provide independent
constraints complementary to those obtained by combining Supernovae, Cosmic
Microwave Background and Baryonic Acoustic Oscillations; while the latter
concern combinations of w_0 and w_a leaving the time evolution of the state
parameter w_a highly unconstrained, the BH abundance mainly provide upper
limits on w_a, only weakly depending on w_0. Combined with the existing
constraints, our results significantly restrict the allowed region in DDE
parameter space, ruling out DDE models not providing cosmic time and fast
growth factor large enough to allow for the building up of the observed
abundance of BHs; in particular, models with -1.2 \leq w_0 \leq -1 and positive
redshift evolution w_a > 0.8 - completely consistent with previous constraints
- are strongly disfavoured by our independent constraints from BH abundance.
Such range of parameters corresponds to "Quintom" DDE models, with w crossing
-1 starting from larger values.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures, accepted to MNRA
The Current Status of Binary Black Hole Simulations in Numerical Relativity
Since the breakthroughs in 2005 which have led to long term stable solutions
of the binary black hole problem in numerical relativity, much progress has
been made. I present here a short summary of the state of the field, including
the capabilities of numerical relativity codes, recent physical results
obtained from simulations, and improvements to the methods used to evolve and
analyse binary black hole spacetimes.Comment: 14 pages; minor changes and corrections in response to referee
- …